Nation: Making Friends in Peking

Last one to
the top fights the Russians in Ethiopia!" ebulliently shouted U.S.
National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski last week as he led his
Chinese hosts on an impromptu foot race at the Great Wall. He won, then
stood next to a group of bemused Chinese sailors to have his picture
taken. "Do you know you are posing with an imperialist?" he joked. Not
so, said the well-coached sailors. "We are having a photograph taken
with the polar-bear tamer."

The sailors' response was intended to reflect China's priorities in
foreign affairs these days, and it typified...